Bank boss has his pay cut to JUST £7.2m and brushes it off as a 'storm in a tea cup'

Jamie Dimon, the boss of investment bank JP Morgan, has been lined up for a £7.2million pay package despite seeing his bonus slashed in half over last year’s £3.8billion 'London Whale' trading loss.

Dimon’s share bonus for 2012 was cut by 54 per cent to £6.3million over his role in the debacle, which has tarnished his reputation as the ‘King of Wall Street’.

His basic salary for 2012 was frozen at £940,000.

The news came as the firm published two internal reports into the shock trading losses incurred by a team of London-based traders called the Chief Investment Office.

Good intentions: JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon defended the intent of the portfolio behind the bank's multibillion-dollar trading loss, and was praised for his handling of the situation

Dimon, who initially brushed off concerns over the losses as a ‘storm in a tea cup’, was praised for responding ‘forcefully’.

But the management report said he ‘he could have better tested his reliance on what he was told’.

The losses were racked up by a team of traders spearheaded by Bruno Iksil, nicknamed the London Whale because of the size of his bets on complex financial instruments.

A separate report from the bank’s board of directors described how traders provided misleading information to bosses about their activities.

It came as JP Morgan announced record profits of £13.3billion, up 21 per cent on the previous year. This was bolstered by a 10 per cent jump in revenues to £15.2billion in the final three months of the year, driven by strong growth in lending and deposits and lower provisions for bad loans.

The bank’s investment banking division was the star performer, with profits more than doubling to £1.2billion in the final quarter.

It handed out average awards of £136,000 to its investment bankers, down 3 per cent on the previous year.

The firm also confirmed that it would not delay paying share bonuses in the UK until after April 6, when the top rate of tax is cut from 50p to 45p.

Goldman Sachs came under fire this week after it emerged it was toying with the option. It was forced into a humiliating U-turn.